Systems and etiquette for home gateways using white space

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for sharing white space with primary services and other emerging services are provided. Signal distribution within a specified location, such as a dwelling, is performed using a home gateway that identifies unused white space, reserves such white space spectrum, and delivers data to one or more devices at the respective location using the reserved spectrum. Signalling between the devices and the gateway is performed over a shared signalling channel, which enables the gateway to advise the devices from where and when to receive data. The gateway also uses a common spectrum reservation OFDM symbol to advise the neighbouring gateways of the local spectrum reservation.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/274,141, entitled “SYSTEMS AND ETIQUETTE FOR HOME GATEWAYSUSING WHITE SPACE,” filed Nov. 19, 2008, which is incorporated herein byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to distribution of data signals overwhite space, and more particularly to a system and etiquette for usingthe white space freed within a specified TV market by conversion fromanalog to digital TV (DTV) systems.

BACKGROUND

The beginning of the 21st century viewed a significant development ofuser wireless terminals for both fixed and mobile environments. Forexample, the modern PCs (personal computers) and notebooks (laptops) areenabled with wireless connections to allow for some mobility and reducethe wiring between the components of the PC. Home LAN convergencerapidly integrates home routers, wireless access points and DSL modemsto connect home computers to a subscribed Internet service. In responseto the growing demand for broadband connection to user premises, aworldwide trend became apparent, namely a move from analog to digital TVDigital (DTV). DTV has several advantages over analog TV. Thus, DTV ismore flexible and efficient than analog television; it enables specialservices such as multiplexing (more than one program on the samechannel), electronic program guides and additional languages, spoken orsubtitled. Another significant advantage of the DTV is that the digitalchannels take up less bandwidth and provide a better performance. Thismeans that digital broadcasters can provide high definition (HDTV)services, with higher-quality images and sound. The sale ofnon-television services may also provide an additional revenue source.

In the US, the FCC mandated transition to digital TV (DTV). Conversionto DTV results in important bandwidth becoming free in the VHF (veryhigh frequency) and/or the lower part of the UHF (ultra high frequency)spectrum, used currently by TV broadcasters. As each TV stationoperating in a certain geographic region/area (TV market) uses only alimited number of channels from the TV band, some digital channelsremain unused by broadcasters in the respective area: this locallyavailable spectrum is called “white space”.

For example, in the United States there are roughly 210 TV broadcastmarkets and 1700 TV broadcasting stations. Currently, each TV station isassigned around eight radio frequency (RF) channels for NTSC broadcast,each channel occupying 6 MHz in the VHF/UHF spectrum. The FederalCommunications Commission (FCC) has mandated that all full-powertelevision broadcasts will use the Advanced Television Systems Committee(ATSC) standards for digital TV by no later than Feb. 17, 2009. Thesedevelopments open the way to providing a variety of new, dedicatedservices to individual/family subscribers. The FCC intends to allocatechannels 2 through 51 to digital TV; channels 52 through 69 that occupythe lower half of the 700 MHz band have already been reallocated throughauction to various advanced commercial wireless services for consumers.When transition DTV ends in early 2009, every one of the 210 TV marketsin the US will have 15 to 40 unassigned (vacant) channels reserved forbroadcasting, but not in use. Vacant TV channels are perfectly suitedfor other unlicensed wireless Internet services. Access to vacant TVchannels facilitates a market for low-cost, high-capacity, mobilewireless broadband networks, including the emerging in-buildingnetworks. Using this white space, the wireless broadband industry coulddeliver Internet access to every household for as little as $10 a monthby some estimates.

Currently, most flat panel HDTV sets still use cablings to connect toset top box or other devices such as DVDs, BlueRay devices or VCRs. Thecabling requirements limit the flexibility of HDTV installation and theappearance. So, there is a market demand to find solutions thateliminate or minimize use of cables. Some companies proposed wirelessHDTV solutions in the 60 GHz spectrum, whereby delivering raw datawirelessly to the HDMI port, which is a standard HDTV interface.Although there is some progress in this area, the performance and costof this solution still poses design and operational challenges.

On Oct. 15, 2008, the FCC's engineering office released a report thatspells out the rules the devices must meet in order to use the whitespace, the main requirement being not to interfere with the primaryservices active in the respective area. Thus, the signals radiated byany white space device operating in the ATSC spectrum must follow theFCC regulations so that the quality of the primary services such as TVbroadcast, wireless microphones, or other emerging services alreadydeployed or which will be deployed in that area will not be degraded bythese new services. The new white space devices should be designed so asto not affect the TV tuner sensitivity and the TV receiver performancespecified by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards.The specification uses the term “white space etiquette” for this set ofregulations that must be accounted for when designing and using whitespace devices. For conformity with these requirements, FCC requires bothfixed and portable devices to include geolocation capabilities and usean FCC database of TV signals and location of venues such as stadiumsand churches that use wireless microphones. These database andgeolocation capabilities would, in theory, prevent interference withbroadcast TV stations and wireless microphones and ensure compliancewith FCC rules.

The mobile industry is considering using the white space by developingstandards on technologies convergence into an architecture that iscomfortable, easy to use and attractively priced. For example, the IEEE802.22 Working Group, formed in 2004, received the mandate to develop astandard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRAN). The mission forthis technology is to provide rural area broadband services tosingle-family residential, multi-dwelling units, small office/homeoffice, small businesses, etc. The standard will be used bylicense-exempt devices in the spectrum allocated to the TV broadcastservice on a non-interfering basis. The 802.22 draft specifies that thenetwork should operate in a point to multipoint configuration, where anoutdoor installed access point (AP) will control the medium access forall the customer premise equipment attached to it, while avoidinginterference with the broadcast services. One key feature of the WRANAPs is the capability to perform a distributed spectrum sensing, wherethe customer premises equipment will be sensing the spectrum and will besending periodic reports to the serving AP informing it about what theysensed. Based on the information gathered, the AP will evaluate whethera change is necessary in the channel utilized, or conversely, if itshould stay transmitting and receiving over the same one. OFDMA isproposed as the modulation scheme for transmission in uplink anddownlink. Channel bonding is also specified for cases when higher bitrates and distances are needed.

However, the 802.22 draft proposes use of the white space only in chunksof 6 MHz (the width of a TV channel specified by the ATSC standard) anddoes not allow for finer granularity. Also, it requires high powertransmissions in both base stations and terminals so as to cover an areawith a 30 km radius. This results in inefficient use of bandwidth (whichis a valuable resource) for the case when only a portion of a 6 MHzchannel is actually needed. For instance, when a wireless microphoneapplication occupies a few hundreds kHz bandwidth from a 6 MHz piece ofspectrum, the reminder of the 6 MHz may be wasted. As well, thebandwidth resources may be inefficiently utilized when the broadbandmarket is in populated areas such as homes or shopping malls etc.

Therefore, there is a need to provide an inexpensive and efficient wayto broadcast multimedia content within a specified area using wirelesssolutions. There is also a need to set overall rules (etiquette) on howto use the white space spectrum that is reserved but not used by theprimary services in a certain area, without affecting operation of theexistent services.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide methods and systems foridentifying and using the white space available in a specified locationfor delivering broadband services over a home network. The presentinvention provides efficient ways to detect the white space and alsoefficient ways to utilize and share the white space.

Another object of the invention is to provide methods and systems fordelivering broadband services to users over a home network, withoutdegrading the quality of the primary services, such as TV broadcast,digital microphone and other services active in the respective area.

Accordingly, the invention provides a system for redistributing datasignals to wireless enabled devices located within a specified area,comprising: a spectrum detector for identifying a white space channelincluding one or more pieces of spectrum that are not currently used inthe specified area; a data distribution unit adapted to receive, processand distribute to devices it serves, information signals received from avariety of sources over the white space channel; and a control channelprocessor for providing a shared signalling channel for enablingsignalling between the wireless enabled device and the data distributionunit.

The invention also provides a method for redistributing data signals towireless enabled devices located within a specified area, comprising: a)establishing a shared signalling channel over a piece of spectrum thatis not currently used in the specified area; b) on receipt of a servicerequest from a device transmitted over the shared signalling channel,establishing a white space channel using one or more pieces of spectrumthat are not currently used in the specified area; c) distributing aninformation signal over the white space channel to the device; and d)controlling transfer of the information signal to the device byexchanging control messages over the shared signalling channel.

Still further, is directed to a method for redistributing data signalsto wireless enabled devices located within a specified area served by agateway, comprising: a) on receipt of service requests from one or moredevices, identifying a corresponding number of white space channelswithin the spectrum that is not currently used in the specified area; b)reserving the white space allocated to the white space channelsidentified in the specified area; c) broadcasting a white spaceallocation message for advertising to all neighbouring gateways thecurrent channel allocation in the specified area; and d) distributingthe information signals over the white space channels to the respectivedevices.

Advantageously, the invention provides an efficient way of identifyingpieces of white space in a specified area and using this white space fordelivering secondary services to subscribers present in that area. Bycomplying with the etiquette proposed by the invention for white spaceuse, the scanning and detection operation becomes simple, and thereforepractical and cost effective. The systems and methods of the inventionare also providing ways to using the identified white space in such away so as to not interfere with the services already active in therespective area.

Another advantage of the method and systems of the invention is that itallows for a simpler, cost effective design of white space devices. Thisinvention also provides a practical way for cognitive white space deviceimplementation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is next described with reference to the followingdrawings, where like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1A shows the ATSC broadcast band;

FIG. 1B illustrates the four bands where white space spectrum may becomeavailable;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a system for distributing multimediadata to subscribers at a specified location according to an embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 3A illustrates use of wavelets for identifying white spaceaccording to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3B shows examples of white space allocation per users;

FIG. 4A illustrates the spectrum used by a signalling channel accordingto an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4B shows an example of a TDD frame that may be used for thesignalling channel;

FIG. 5A illustrates an embodiment of a common spectrum reservation OFDMsymbol used by the gateways to advise the spectrum reservation status toneighbouring gateways;

FIG. 5B shows the common spectrum reservation OFDM symbol in thefrequency domain;

FIG. 5C illustrates an example of how pieces of white space can beidentified using bin indexing, according to an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 6A is a flowchart of the method according to an embodiment of theinvention, showing the steps performed by the gateway; and

FIG. 6B is a flowchart of the method according to an embodiment of theinvention, showing the steps performed by the device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In this specification, the term “primary services” is used for DTVbroadcast, wireless microphone and any other applications that areentitled by regulations to use a specified portion of the spectrum. Asindicated above, each TV station operating in a certain geographicregion/area uses only a limited number of channels from the spectrumallocated to the DTV, such that some pieces of spectrum (contiguous ornot) remain unused in the respective area: this locally availablespectrum is called “white space”. Thus, the white space differs from TVmarket to TV market; the term “specified area” or “location” is used todesignate a particular area such as single or multi-dwelling units,small office/home office, small businesses, multi-tenant buildings,public and private campuses, etc located in a certain TV market. Theterm “home network” refers to a wireless network serving such an area.

The present invention provides methods and systems for distribution ofdata signals in a specified area, and more particularly to a system andetiquette for using any available white space. In particular, thedescription refers to the white space freed within such an area by theconversion from analog to DTV broadcast, and uses as an example theNorth America ATSC standards; however, the methods and systems describedhere are also applicable to other jurisdictions, standards and/or partsof the spectrum. For example, a DTV channel in Japan occupies 8 MHz andthe width of a DTV channel in European countries is 7 MHz. The inventionis not restricted to identifying unused pieces of spectrum 6 MHz wide(the width of an ATSC channel); applying the techniques described here,narrower or larger pieces of unused spectrum may be considered. Forexample, if a portion of a 6 MHz piece of white space is occupied by awireless microphone, the remaining part of that 6 MHz piece of spectrumcan also be used according to this invention. Still further, theinvention is described in connection with local wireless TV broadcast,but same principles are applicable to other types of signal distributionin the white space, and the white space need not necessarily be in theVHF/UHF bands.

Turning to the North America example, the ATSC standards mandate abandwidth of 6 MHz for each TV channel, use of Trellis Eight—VestigialSide Band (8-VSB) modulation, and Reed-Solomon encoding. The TV receiverhas some basic requirements to properly decode the ATSC signal andprovide good quality TV pictures. These requirements include a Signal toNoise Ratio (SNR) no less than 15 dB or equivalently, a bit error rate(BER) no worse than 3×10⁻⁶, a thermal noise floor of −106.2 dBm (dBm isthe abbreviation for the power ratio measurement units), and asensitivity between −81 and −84 dBm, etc. Any secondary servicecontending for the white space available in a certain area must complyto a certain etiquette so as to not interfere with the primary services(TV broadcast, wireless microphone, etc).

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1A illustrates the US digitaltelevision broadcast spectrum after Feb. 17, 2009, showing five bandsdenoted with T1-T5. Band T1 occupied by ATSC channels 2-4 has 18 MHz,extending from 54 MHz to 72 MHz. Band T2 occupied by channels 5-6 has 12MHz between 76 MHz to 88 MHz, band T3 occupied by channels 7-13 has 42MHz between 174 MHz and 216 MHz. Further, band T4 carrying channels14-36 occupies 138 MHz, extending from 470 MHz to 608 MHz and band T5occupied by channels 38-51 has 84 MHz, from 614 MHz to 698 MHz. Thus,this group of 49 ATSC channels covers a total spectrum of 294 MHz(18+12+42+138+84).

Since channels 2, 3, and 4 will be reserved for some specificapplications, after this reservation, the commercial ATSC TV channelswill encompass 274 MHz, ranging from 76 MHz to 698 MHz, as shown on FIG.1B by bands T2-T5.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a system for distributing multimediadata to subscribers at a specified location according to an embodimentof the invention. The system includes a gateway 10, which is preferablya home gateway, which broadcasts TV signals inside a home to a device 9.Device 9 is a wireless enabled data device; while FIG. 2 shows acomputer, it is to be understood that device 9 can equally be a digitalTV set provided with a set-top box, or any other device that enables auser to select, access and view multimedia content (e.g. TV programming,movies, games, etc). It is also to be noted that this invention enablesuse of conventional TV sets, with no changes required to the tuner. Ingeneral terms, gateway 10 comprises a data distribution unit 1, aspectrum detector 2 a control channel processor 3 and a backhaulinterface 20. This Figure also shows the components of the datadistribution unit 1, namely, a baseband processor 6 and a distributor 7.

Spectrum detector 2 is used to sense the white space available in therespective area (see above definition) over a part of the wirelesscommunication spectrum (licensed or not) and provide this information todistributor unit 1. The part of the wireless communication spectrum overwhich the white space is sensed is preferably preset when the system isinstalled, to a certain part or parts of the spectrum that are known tobe underutilized in a certain region. For example, it may include thespectrum freed by transition from analog to digital TV, or parts of theunlicensed spectrum (e.g. 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands used by WiFi). Asanother example, it can include the entire VHF/UHF spectrum. Spectrumdetector 2 senses the wireless signals present in the scanned spectrum,using an antenna 4.

The control channel processor 3 is used for enabling the devices tocommunicate with the distribution unit 1 over a shared signallingchannel, denoted with 5 on FIG. 2. Signalling channel 5 enablesestablishment of a master-slave relationship between the gateway and thedevices it serves. By using this signalling channel, the gatewaycontrols operation of the devices in conformity with the white spaceetiquette. In turn, the shared signalling channel is used by all devicesserved by distribution unit for connection set-up (as a rendezvouschannel), for communicating to unit 1 information such as accessrequests, bandwidth requests, etc, as known to persons skilled in theart. Antenna 4 is used for transmitting the control information to thedevices over the signalling channel 5 and for receiving the servicerequests and status information from the devices over channel 5. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 2, the channel processor 3 and spectrumdetector 2 share antenna 4, but embodiments with different antennae forthese operations are also possible.

Data distribution unit 1 receives the user signals from various sourcesand transmits these to the device 9 over the white space identified bythe spectrum detector 2; antenna unit 13 is used for transmitting thedata to the devices. As indicated above, parameters of the informationsignal transmitted by the unit 1 are designed so as to not interferewith the primary services present in the respective area. In generalterms, the power of the information signal is very low, the carrierfrequency and the band of the signals are selected in parts of thespectrum that are not currently used by other services, and thetransmission is synchronized to the ATSC broadcast.

The operation of the spectrum detector 2 is described in connection withFIGS. 3A and 3B. As indicated above, spectrum detector 2 scans selectedpart of the wireless communication spectrum. As an example, the parts ofinterest could be the bands T2-T5 allocated to DTV. The searchedspectrum may be further defied in each TV market based on the tables(available) with the regional allocation of TV channels. Since each TVmarket uses a maximum of 12 TV channels (i.e. 72 MHz), it is very likelythat more than 200 MHz of white space will be available in anyparticular location. If a look-up table with the locally allocated TVchannels is provided at the gateway, the gateway may exclude thespectrum occupied by these channels from the scan; if not, gateway 10scans the entire TV spectrum.

The spectrum analyzing operation involves scanning a spectrum ofinterest for sensing (detecting) any signals occupying that spectrum,analyzing the sensed signals and identifying the pieces of spectrum thatare not currently occupied; in other words, detecting pieces of whitespace. The term “current spectrum occupancy” refers here to the spectrumthat is currently allocated to various primary services, or used by anyactive secondary service. Spectrum analyzing is repeated at regularintervals, as the spectrum occupancy varies arbitrarily with wirelessdevices being connected/disconnected to/from the gateway, so that thespectrum detector 2 enables the gateway to know at all times of thespectrum occupancy at the respective location.

Spectrum detector 2 may be a spectrum analyzer of any kind. For example,a preferred embodiment of the invention uses a wavelet spectrum analyzeras described in the co-pending patent application U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/078,979 identified above. FIG. 3A illustratesuse of wavelets for identifying white space according to an embodimentof the invention; FIG. 3B shows examples of white space allocations perusers. A wavelet spectrum analyzer/detector uses a frequency and timemap, which is divided into frequency-time cells, as shown in FIG. 3A at31 and 32. Using wavelet signal analysis, signal energy within each ofthe frequency-time cells is measured in order to identify frequency-timecells with little or no detectable signal activity. The frequency-timecells identified as unused provide an opportunity for use by thesecondary services.

Another feature of the wavelet spectrum detector 2 is that the size ofthe frequency-time cells can be adjusted for finer or coarsergranularity, in both time and frequency. For example, the time-frequencycells 31, 32 have different time and frequency dimensions: in FIG. 3A,cell 31 may provide a piece of free spectrum with a bandwidthΔf=f_(B)−f₂, for a duration of time ΔT=t₂−t₁; cell 32 may provideanother a piece of free spectrum with a bandwidth Δf=f₂−f₁, for aduration of time ΔT=t₄−t₃. As the frequency-time cells identified asusable (free) change in time and frequency, the selection ofcommunication channels by the gateway 10 is “dynamic”. As thefrequency-time cells identified as usable (free) change also in size,detection of white space and selection of the communication channels bythe gateway is also “adaptive”. By identifying “smaller” frequency-timecells with no detectable signal activity, the home network may takeadvantage of instances within a communication spectrum where a certainspectrum can be shared in both frequency and time domains. It alsoenables identifying more than one piece of spectrum for use by a newservice, when only one piece of spectrum is insufficient for therespective service.

FIG. 3B shows examples of white space allocations per user. For example,in order to obtain 6 MHz for broadcasting a TV channel to a user A,spectrum analyzer 2 scans the spectrum and identifies a 2 MHz piece ofwhite space in T2, denoted with A1 and 4 MHz of white space in T3,denoted with A2 (note that the width of the identified spectrum isexaggerated in FIG. 3B for better illustrating the example). As anotherexample, if 1 MHz is available in band T3, shown by B1, 3 MHz areavailable in T4 shown as B2, and 2 MHz are available in T5 shown as B3,a user B will receive a TV broadcast from the gateway on a white spacechannel including all three pieces of spectrum B1, B2 and B3. Stillanother example, not shown, is when the piece of spectrum identified bythe gateway for a certain receiver has 6 MHz in which case the whitespace channel is made of one piece of spectrum only.

The dynamic and adaptive attributes of the wireless spectrum allocationmethod and system of the invention make it quite different from theconventional wireless spectrum allocation schemes. First, conventionalwireless communications RF channels are usually pre-designed in that thetransmission channels are allocated either in frequency in (FDMAsystems), in time (TDMA systems), both in frequency and time (OFDMA), orin codes (CDMA systems). But, it is well known that wireless devices usea piece of spectrum and release it when communication is completed, sothat spectrum utilization is not ideal when the allocation ispre-designed, as some pieces of spectrum may be idle during some periodsof times, while some devices cannot gain access to this idle spectrum.Furthermore, in conventional systems, for enabling multiple users toshare a piece of spectrum, the bandwidth and waveforms need to bepre-designed so as to keep the channels well separated to reduce theinterference. For example the GSM systems, which can accommodatesimultaneously more than 8 calls within a 200 kHz channel, use aGaussian-like waveform. WCDMA systems have a 5 MHz channel bandwidth anda chip rate of 3.84 Mcps and use a radio resource controller (RRC) witha roll off factor 0.22, WiFi OFDM systems have a bandwidth 20 MHz anduse rectangular pulses, etc.

To summarize, the channels established between the gateway 10 anddevices 9 according to the invention change dynamically in time,frequency and size. To distinguish these channels from the conventionalones, the specification uses the term “TV channel” for the DTV channelsand the term “white space channel” for a logical channel formed by oneor more pieces of spectrum identified by gateway 10 and allocated to acertain device for a respective secondary service: it can include apiece of white space spectrum or a plurality of pieces bonded together,the white space of spectrum, the pieces being consecutive or not.

The signalling channel, used for enabling proper operation of thedevices served by gateway 10, is described in connection with FIGS. 4Aand 4B. The gateway starts transmitting this channel from the moment itis turned on; this enables the devices 9 to look for the gateway,connect to it, request and receive services and monitor the channel forfurther instructions. FIG. 4A illustrates selection of the sharedsignalling channel according to an embodiment of the invention, and FIG.4B shows an example of a TDD frame that may be used for the sharedsignalling channel.

Gateway 10 selects the shared signalling channel (or signalling channelor rendezvous channel) 5 in the white space. As seen in FIG. 4A, thesignalling channel 5 is selected in a fixed relationship with the leftedge of a respective unoccupied DTV channel, as shown by Δ on FIG. 4Aand may occupy for example 300 kHz. Once the gateway is synchronized tothe DTV broadcast, synchronization is maintained for all datatransmitted to the devices it serves. For example, the signallingchannel 5 of the invention may be set at for 500 kHz from the ATSC pilot41 (the ATSC pilot is designed to be transmitted at 309.44 kHz from thestart of a TV channel). It is noted here that this is just an example,and other arrangements can be equally used. Thus, the carrier frequencyfor the signaling channel may be in a pre-selected relationship with afrequency mark defined by the ATSC specification, such as for examplethe beginning of an ATSC channel reserved but not used in the spectrumportion of interest. It is also to be noted that the ATSC signal 40 inFIG. 4A is shown only for illustrating how the gateway is synchronizedto the ATSC broadcast; no ATSC signal is in fact present in the spectrumwhere the control channel is established. To summarize, according to theinvention, is a narrow (e.g. 300 kHz), low power channel establishedover the air between the gateway antenna 4 and device's antenna 4′. Thesignalling channel 5 is selected into a specified part of the whitespace spectrum, so that the device does not need to scan large portionsof the spectrum; this will reduce complexity of the device scanner.

Channel 5 may be a TDD channel, shared by the devices that are on. Sincethe spectrum occupied by this channel is small, the shared signallingchannel may be transmitted using a small portion of spectrum in TVchannels 2, 3 or 4, or any 6 MHz TV channel that is not in use.Alternatively, the signalling channel 43 may be transmitted within theguard band between the ATSC channels, while maintaining the fixedrelationship with the ATSC pilot 41.

The width of the signalling channel may be set based on the number ofdevices served by the gateway 10. For example a 300 kHz wide channel maybe shared by eight devices. As the white space otherwise occupied by anactive TV channel is much larger (6 MHz), the reminder of white spacemay be used by the gateway for other services.

FIG. 4B shows an example of an embodiment of the frame 43 of such abidirectional shared signalling channel. In this example, as the channelis 300 kHz wide, the resulting speed is roughly 300/600 bits/ms for aBPSK or QPSK modulation. The frame 43 has 10×1 ms slots, for a frameduration of 10 ms. Of the 10 slots, 8 slots are allocated to thedevices, and the first and the last are reserved for general controldata. The information in the header of a frame identifies this as thesignalling channel. As seen in the lower part of FIG. 4B, out of twoconsecutive frames, frame 44 is broadcast by the gateway 10 to alldevices D1-D8; each device receives and processes the data from the slotthat is addressed to it. The next frame denoted with 45 carries datatransmitted by the devices to the gateway, in sequential order. It isnoted that this is just an example of the signalling channel and thatnumerous other embodiment of this channel may be equally used.

When gateway 10 receives a connection request from a device 9, itselects a white space channel on which to broadcast to device 9. Thewhite space channels are allocated based on the available spectrumsensed by the detector 2, and takes into account the bandwidth necessaryfor the requested service. Once the white space channel is selected, thegateway informs device 9 on the parameters of this channel (frequency,time, size) over the signalling channel, and starts broadcasting data tothe device/s.

Returning now to FIG. 2, backhaul interface 20 comprises a plurality ofinterfaces 21-26 that receive user signals from various sources. Theinterfaces include the respective demodulators and error correctors thatdecode and process the source signals of various formats into a basebandsignal that carries the user data. For example, interface 20 may includea Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying/Forward Error Correction (QPSK/FEC)decoder 21, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing/FEC (OFDM/FEC)decoder 22, a Quadrature Amplitude Modulation/FEC (QAM/FEC) decoder 23,a Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL) unit 24, a Fiber To The Home (FTTH)unit 25, and a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) unit 26. Interfaces 21-26are known to the persons skilled in the art and therefore are notdescribed in further details here. It is however to be noted thatinterfaces 21-26 preferably do not perform any MPEG decoding to keep thedata rate below 30 Mbps and reduce the cost.

A particular signal source 21-26 is selectively coupled to the baseband(BB) processor 6. For the example of a North American type gateway, BBprocessor 6 converts the signals to ATSC standard signals to ensurecompatibility of the signals broadcast by the gateway with ATSCequipment at the user end. The signal is then provided to distributor 7that up-converts the BB signal received from processor 6 on therespective white-space channel/s detected by spectrum detector 2, andtransmits the signal to the devices 9.

Distributor 7 is shown with four branches, each for a certain carrierfrequency f1-f4 in the embodiment of FIG. 2, illustrating basebandfilters 27, mixers 28, filters 29 and amplifiers 30. The components ofdistributor 7 are merely one possible structure. Distributor 7 may bereplaced by a suitably designed equivalent, as will be apparent to thoseof skill in the art. The number of branches used for distribution of thesignal to device 9 is also a design parameter; a maximum of fourbranches is preferred, but the invention is not limited to this number.

At any time, it is possible that less than four branches of thedistributor are used for transmission to a device 9. For the example ofuser B of FIG. 3B, since the white space channel allocated to device 9includes pieces of white space B1, B2 and B3, distributor 7 uses onlythree of the four branches. In this case, let's say that f1 is thecarrier frequency in B1, f2 is the carrier frequency in B2, and f3 isthe carrier frequency in B3. The baseband signal, let's call it S, isde-multiplexed by processor 6 into three component signals s1, s2 and s3according to the available bandwidth B1, B2 and B3, and each componentis transmitted along one of the branches. The components are firstfiltered by filters 27, then mixed with the respective carrier f1, f2and f3 in modulators 28 and further shaped by filters 29, to obtain arespective RF component S1, S2 and S3. Next, S1, S2 and S3, amplified asshown at 30, are combined in a RF combiner 39 for transmission, afterbeing preferably OFDMA modulated.

For the example shown in FIG. 3B where the white space is provided bytwo pieces of spectrum A1 and A2, if A1 and A2 have the same bandwidth,a transmitter diversity scheme can be achieved by transmitting the samesignal via both branches, in which case two antennae are provided byantenna unit 13; the receiver may thus obtain a higher gain bymanipulating the amplitude, phase and symbol pattern of the two receivedsignals. As another example, when the gateway identifies 6 MHz of whitespace in one piece, only one branch of the distributor 7 is used forbroadcasting an ATSC channel.

As indicated above, the present invention also provides for a commonspectrum reservation message, which is shown in FIG. 5A. This messageinforms the neighbouring gateways of the spectrum reservations made byeach gateway 10. In this way, the white space spectrum already reservedin the respective area is known at all times to all gateways operatingin the respective area. Each home gateway transmits the reservationmessage at predefined time intervals using a common OFDM symbol. Thecommon spectrum reservation OFDM symbol carries spectrum usageinformation and further refines the available spectrum by detectingincumbent systems and devices.

As an example, the common spectrum reservation OFDM symbol uses asub-carrier spacing Δf, and has a size N for the Fourier transform(DFT). In a preferred embodiment, Δf=200 kHz and N=1370. The length ofthe cyclic prefix (CP) is selected to compensate for the delay spreadamong the neighbouring gateways (to allow multipath to settle before themain data arrives). FIG. 5B shows how the common spectrum reservationOFDM symbol is designed for the above example where Δf=200 kHz, N=1370,and the spectrum under consideration is the VHF/UHF band, between 76 and698 MHz. As seen, “zero's” are transmitted in the intervals betweenbands T2-T3; T3-T4; T4-T5; while a transmitted zero does not modulateanything, it raises the noise level so that it still can be detected(i.e. still some decoding is possible).

FIG. 5C illustrates an example of how the spectrum of interest isdivided into bins, for enabling the gateways to identify and indicateany piece of spectrum using a bin index. Bins in one of bands T2, T3, T4or T5 can be identified using the first 2 bits of the index (for fourbands). For example, the bins in T2 could be identified by a 00 valuefor the bin index, the bins in T3 by a 01 value, in T4 by a 10 value,and in T5 by a 11 value. As the width of the bands T2-T5 is different,each of the bands T2 to T5 will need to use a different number of bins.Thus, based on a Δf=200 kHz (granularity of the pieces of spectrum to beallocated to the secondary services) band T2 requires 6 bits to identify59 bins, band T3 requires 8 bits to identify 309 bins, band T4 requires10 bits to identify 689 bins and band T5 also requires 10 bits toidentify 959 bins. In order to obtain the 6 MHz needed for broadcastinga TV channel, and using the above exemplary granularity of Δf=200 kHz,the gateway must identify 30 bins, which results in an index of 2 bits(for identifying T2-T5)+30×10 bits (for identifying the bins in thelargest of T2-T5)=302 bits for the worst case scenario.

The bin indexing method may be used for identifying pieces of whitespace in other transmission bands than VHF/UHF. As well, other ways ofidentifying the white space may also be envisaged.

Devices 9, shown generically in FIG. 2 as a computer with an antenna 4′,are equipped with a scanner that detects the shared signalling channelupon turn-on and look to it. As indicated above, use of the sharedsignalling channel enables the devices to receive control informationfrom the control channel processor 3 and to transmit to the controlchannel processor 3 service requests and status information. Device 9also receives the high rate data channel from the gateway, over the airinterface established between the gateway antenna 13 and device'santenna 4′. No changes to the device tuner are needed when the data istransmitted in the TV spectrum and MPEG format.

FIG. 6A is a flowchart of the method according to the inventionillustrating the steps performed by a gateway 10. FIG. 6B is a flowchartof the method according to the invention illustrating the stepsperformed by a device 9 for establishing communication with the gatewayover white space identified by gateway 10. FIGS. 6A and 6B are describedwith reference to block diagram of gateway 10 shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 6A, on turn-on, spectrum detector 2 of gateway 10starts to scan the selected portion/s (band/s) of the wirelesscommunication spectrum, which is, for example, the TV spectrum in bandsT2-T5 (see FIG. 1B). This operation is shown by steps 61, 62, and 63,and involves sensing the signals present in the VHF/UHF spectrum,analyzing the sensed signals and detecting the pieces of spectrum thatare not currently occupied. The scanning, analyzing and detectionoperation is repeated at regular intervals, as the spectrum occupancyvaries arbitrarily with wireless devices being connected/disconnectedto/from the gateway, so that the gateway is aware at all times of thespectrum occupancy at the respective location. At step 61, if a look-uptable with the locally allocated channels is available at the gateway,as shown by branch “YES” of decision block 61, the gateway excludes thespectrum occupied by these channels from the scan, as shown at step 62.If not, as shown by branch “NO” of decision block 61, gateway 10 scansthe entire TV spectrum, step 63.

Next, the gateway selects the shared signalling channel 5 needed tocontrol the devices through signalling information between the gatewayand the devices. This is shown in step 64. As indicated before, thesignalling channel enables devices 9 to look for the gateway, forconnecting to it, requesting services and receiving instructions.

If gateway 10 receives a connection request from a device 9, as shown instep 65, it will identify and select a white space channel on which tobroadcast to device 9, step 66. The white space channels are allocatedbased on the available spectrum sensed in steps 61-63, and thisoperation takes into account the bandwidth necessary for the requestedservice (in the exemplary case of an ATSC channel, the bandwidthnecessary is 6 MHz, and can be available as a single piece or made froma plurality of white space pieces). Once the white space channel isselected, the gateway informs device 9 on the parameters of this channelover the signalling channel, step 67. In this way, the devices areinformed of the frequency, start time, current bandwidth allocation,duration etc. This information is preferably in the form of bit maps,and enables the gateway and devices to transmit starting from thedesignated time and frequency grids, rather than arbitrarily.

Next, in step 68, the gateway starts broadcasting data to the device/s,as shown, using the frequency-time grid received from the gateway. Asindicated above, since the grids are synchronized with the ATSCbroadcast the interference is reduced to conform to the FCCrequirements. This is further possible since the power of the signalstransmitted by the gateway is very small.

At the same time, gateway 10 reserves the respective white channel, step66, and provides the neighbouring gateways with the information aboutthe white space it reserved, step 69. As indicated above, this isaccomplished using the common spectrum reservation OFDM symbol. Thereservation stays active during the entire life of the connection. It isto be noted that step 69 is repeated at regular intervals of time, toupdate the neighbouring gateways with the current white spacereservation information as devices at the location served by gateway 10change their state between active, idle and inactive.

FIG. 6B is a flowchart of the method according to an embodiment of theinvention, showing the steps performed by a device 9. In step 70 thedevice, which has been powered up, scans the spectrum for any gatewaybroadcast and detects the signalling channel 5. Once channel 5 isdetected, device 9 sends to the gateway a request for a connection andservice over this channel, step 71. Once the connection has beenestablished, the device requests a certain service, step 72. If, forexample, a user wishes to connect to TV channel 7, it sends to thegateway a join signal that specifies TV channel 7. The gateway has thecurrent spectrum occupancy information, as provided by the spectrumdetector 2. Using this data, the gateway allocates to device 9 awhite-space channel available for broadcasting channel 7 to the device,and transmits instructions to the device as how and where to receive therequested multimedia media content. In step 73, the device receivesthese instructions from the gateway 10 and in step 74 it receives thesignal and processes it to extract the multimedia content.

1. A data distribution unit for transmitting data signals carrying userdata to a wireless enabled device located within a specified area,comprising: a processor adapted to select a data signal from a signalsource, convert the data signal to a baseband signal in accordance witha first protocol associated with the wireless enabled device, and adjustparameters of the baseband signal so as to comply with a second protocolassociated with white space; and a distributor coupled to the processor,the distributor adapted to receive an identification of a white-spacechannel in TV spectrum available for communication in the specifiedarea, and convert the adjusted baseband signal for transmission on thewhite-space channel.
 2. A data distribution unit as in claim 1, furthercomprising an antenna for transmitting the adjusted baseband signal onthe white-space channel to the wireless enabled device for enabling thewireless enabled device to reproduce the user data.
 3. A datadistribution unit as in claim 1, wherein the white space channel isformed of M cells of TV spectrum that are not currently used in thespecified area.
 4. A data distribution unit as in claim 3, wherein thedistributor comprises: N branches connected to the output of theprocessor, the N branches being tuned on carrier frequencies associatedwith the white-space channel, and a radio frequency (RF) combiner forcombining outputs of the N branches at the input of the antenna, whereinM≦N.
 5. A data distribution unit as in claim 4, wherein the basebandsignal is partitioned between M branches of the distributor.
 6. A datadistribution system as in claim 3, wherein the identification of thewhite-space channel includes a carrier frequency, a frequency band, anda time interval for each of the M cells.
 7. A data distribution systemas in claim 1, wherein the identification of the white-space channelincludes a carrier frequency, a frequency band, and a time interval. 8.A data distribution system as in claim 1, wherein the second protocolprovides for adjusting the parameters of the baseband signal so as tonot interfere with any primary service available in the specified area.9. A method for distribution of data signals carrying user data to awireless enabled device located within a specified area, comprising:selecting a data signal from a signal source; converting the data signalto a baseband signal according to a first protocol associated with thewireless enabled device; adjusting parameters of the baseband signal soas to comply with a second protocol associated with white space; andconverting the adjusted baseband signal for transmission on awhite-space channel identified in TV spectrum as available forcommunication in the specified area.
 10. A method as in claim 9, whereinthe white space channel is formed of M cells of TV spectrum that are notcurrently used in the specified area.
 11. A method as in claim 10,further comprising transmitting the adjusted baseband signal on thewhite-space channel to the wireless enabled device for allowing thewireless enabled device to reproduce the user data.
 12. A method as inclaim 11, wherein adjusting the parameters of the baseband signalcomprises: separating the baseband signal into M component signals;routing the component signals along M branches of an N branchdistributor, where M≦N; and processing the M component signals accordingto the second protocol.
 13. A method as in claim 12, wherein processingthe M component signals according to the second protocol comprises:selecting a carrier frequency, time interval, and frequency band foreach of the M component signals in a part of the TV spectrum that is notcurrently used by a primary service; modulating the M component signalsover a respective carrier frequency; and adjusting powers of the Mcomponent signals to a respective preset value.
 14. A method as in claim9, further comprising synchronizing the adjusted baseband signal to adigital TV broadcast signal available in the specified area.
 15. Amethod as in claim 12, further comprising providing a signalling channelfor enabling the wireless enabled device to transmit and receivemessages to and from the distributor.
 16. A method as in claim 15,wherein the signalling channel uses a carrier frequency within a portionof the white space available in the specified area.
 17. A method as inclaim 15, wherein the signalling channel has a carrier frequencyselected in a fixed relationship with the beginning of an ATSC channel.18. A method as in claim 15, wherein the signalling channel is shared byat least two wireless enabled devices present in the specified area. 19.A method as in claim 15, wherein the signalling channel is establishedover a data network.